After being in 4 countries (USA, France, Ukraine, and Romania), my team and I have arrived safely to our contact’s home in Romania. And when I say “home”, its really a 3 story building that houses up to 65 guests, right next to a small orphanage that a lady from runs. Its a very modern and bright facility, with the outside looking more like a preschool playground with swings and jungle gym. So far, I’ve met about 4 boys ages 9-12, and 3 girls about the same age. They all speak English as the founder of the home is from Maryland, but moved here 30 yrs ago.
Ok, so let me back up a second. If you remember, I had told most of you that our team was starting in Ukraine after our plans got changed from Ireland being our first country. Well, here is now the order of things for the first 3 months – Romania, Ukraine, then Ireland.
Heres what went down – The rest of my squad (other 7 teams) are currently at 7 different ministry sites all through out Ukraine at the moment. Since there were not enough known ministry contacts in Ukraine, my team (Team Jubilee) was selected to work in Bucharest, Romania for the first month. So as an entire squad of 53 people we all flew into Ukraine together (with layover in Paris). My team spend a night at a hostel in Ukraine (which had internet access and at 4am was able to get game cast updates of the Lakers winning another ring!). The following day, my team boarded a 30 hour train ride from Kiev Ukraine to Bucharest Romania. Thank God we were all super tired and jet lagged, as we all slept for at least half of that time in 4 bed train stalls. It looked like a train from the olden days movies, dingy but had character. Then in month 2, all 7 team from Ukraine will travel to Romania and meet with us a for a 1 day check-in. They will then disperse to 7 different sites throughout Romania. At that time, my team will travel to Ukraine and work with a ministry site there.
In Bucharest, We will be working at a women’s home where we think they will be ages 18 and up. From what we’ve been told, these are girls and women who have been abandoned, abused, or kicked out of state orphans. Sorry for the uncertainty and speculation, but I write to you on the first morning of being in Ukraine, and our ministry doesn’t start for another day. The crazy thing is that the name of this women’s home is Jubilee… which is also our team name! Quite fitting eh?
ok, on to some updates on what my role is as Logistics leader for the year .
– helping the squad travel from country to country
– setting up initial hostel or other accommodations if our contact aren’t able to immediately house us
– guiding the team on how to find train, taxi, bus or other tickets so they can travel to their respective destinations
– brief the squad in each new country on some of the cultural norms and faux paus
– set up debrief meetings where every 2-3 months, the entire squad gets together and spends time with our team coaches who are a very nice married couple who have a ministry in S.Africa and the husband was a pastor. They are amazing people who’s job is to love and care for our squad in whatever capacity is needed.
***Definitely could use prayer for the above, as its just me and another guy responsible for the squad in these way… and sometimes just me as is the case in the first month of Romania.
Thats all for now. Thanks for taking the time to read. I have internet access at the site I’m staying this month, so don’t be shy to shoot me an email. The blogging may be more frequent this month just because I have internet available… but that may even out in Africa. 🙂
pictures to come…
Love and peace!
J
